North Naples company helps customers use GPS to track trucks to teenagers

Scott McIntyre/Staff
Beth Terron checks in on a grouping of trucks that is being tracked by the GPS tracking system sold by ArgoTrak. The Naples business has grown out of another local business, Position Logic that sells GPS tracking software. ArgoTrak is expanding and will soon move into new offices. It provides tracking services to a growing number of businesses. The technology can be used to track trucks, JetSkis and even children.

NAPLES - Without a boat, Captain Jimbo Hail is sunk.

So when thieves made off with his charter boat in Naples a few months ago, he thought he might lose his business too.

But a tracking device he bought from a Collier County company helped him get his 30-foot Intrepid boat back in a few hours — and kept his business afloat.

"I forgot all about it," Hail said of the device, "until the boat was gone."

The Global Positioning System, or GPS, tracking device, installed and monitored by ArgoTrak in North Naples, is hidden from sight, so it's easy to forget it's there. Even so, it's always working, backed by around-the-clock service and technical support.

ArgoTrak's specialty is fleet management, but it also sells devices to track people and other valuable assets. The growing business has a close working relationship with Position Logic in North Naples — a leader in GPS-tracking software that recently landed on the Inc. 500 list of America's fastest-growing companies after seeing a 763 percent jump in revenues from 2008 to 2011.

Position Logic — with revenue of $2.4 million last year — provides software to tracking businesses like ArgoTrak around the world. The software can be used to follow everything from trucks and boats to teenagers and dignitaries.

GPS tracking is one of the fastest-growing markets in the technology sector, with systems becoming more advanced and less costly with increasing demand.

The fleet-tracking marketplace is already a multibillion-dollar industry.

Meanwhile, personal tracking devices are expected to become a billion-dollar market of their own by 2017, according to a report by ABI Research, headquartered in New York.

* * * * *

ArgoTrak's co-founder, Jim Wheeler, 44, worked for Position Logic in technical sales for about two years before striking out on his own as a retailer of the tracking technology in 2009, with his "retired" father as a partner.

His father, Captain Jim Wheeler, is also a charter boat captain.

"I failed retirement," said the older Wheeler, now 70, with a laugh.

While there are tracking businesses around the globe, the Wheelers, who are co-owners, say their business is a rarity in Southwest Florida.

"When we did our Yellow Pages ad they didn't have a category for it," said the younger Wheeler.

The Wheelers started the business with an investment of $2,000. Both worked for Eastman Kodak Co. in New York before deciding to escape the cold winters and move to sunny Southwest Florida. The older Wheeler worked in research and development for the photo giant, retiring after 30 years, and his son was a manufacturing engineer for about 14 years.

Before joining Position Logic, the younger Wheeler was a purchasing manager for a national homebuilder, Centex, on the west coast of Florida. He was forced to look for another job after the housing market tanked in Southwest Florida, eventually landing him at Position Logic.

* * * * *

About half of ArgoTrak's business is in Lee and Collier counties, with the rest coming from other parts of the U.S., Canada and even overseas. The company's technology is used in Trinidad to track power boats for races, in St. Kitts to keep tabs on taxis and in Canada to follow people.

ArgoTrak has customers in Latin America, South Africa, Australia and even the Middle East.

The tracking software can be used on more than 150 devices, including smartphones and plug-ins that fit into a vehicle's On-Board Diagnostic (OBD) port. The company charges $250 to $300 on average to install tracking devices and it costs $25 a month to monitor each device.

ArgoTrak now has more than 250 customers and 1,000 active devices. The company adds about 100 new devices a month and will move into a new 2,200-square-foot headquarters near Bob Evans off Immokalee Road after outgrowing a 400-square-foot office inside Position Logic's nearby headquarters.

A year ago, ArgoTrak had three employees. Now it has a dozen. The family owned business involves three generations of Wheelers. The youngest Wheeler, Mike, 24, worked for Position Logic for about a year.

The Wheelers formed NSEW Solutions Inc. as their hardware distribution arm — and that's the name they're hanging on their new headquarters.

* * * * *

With the tracking technology, businesses can lower costs, improve safety, increase efficiency and enhance customer service. In the case of fleet management, it's used to help ensure drivers are taking the shortest routes, working the hours they claim, doing the speed limit and not idling for too long wasting gas.

When drivers tracked by the technology are speeding a text message or email goes directly to their bosses. The technology can also help manage vehicle maintenance and find lost, stolen or broken-down vehicles.

ArgoTrak only uses Position Logic's software, but plans to partner with other companies to diversify its offerings. As an example, it hopes to soon sell devices that disable texting on phones as soon as they detect drivers getting into their cars.

"It will stop all texting and prevent accidents. It takes away the temptation of looking at the phone because it won't work," said Wheeler, company president.

* * * * *

ArgoTrak's technology came through when Hail needed it most, leading deputies to Homestead to recover his charter boat and arrest the men who drove off with it a few months ago.

As Tropical Storm Isaac approached Southwest Florida and threatened to become a hurricane in late August, Hail pulled his boat out of the water and put it in storage at his shop, leaving it on a trailer.

According to a Collier County Sheriff's report, thieves cut a fence at Hail's shop and then drove away with his boat, heading down Interstate 75 toward the Florida Keys. The two men were stopped and arrested on Krome Avenue in Homestead, and Hail's boat was returned the same day.

"It's how I make my living," Hail said of the vessel. "It's my job and they could have stole my job."